old nurse

Any free agent the Twins sign should have a front loaded contract. It might be a first for baseball and possibly really shake up how business is done. Imagine how contentious things could get.

Maybe some other GM will think Deduno is the next Jake Westbrook and the Twins can get a Corey Kluber type prospect in return

Bobbie V provided anecdotal evidence you can screw a team up. He only managed one year in Boston. They add talent and Farrell looks good. Notice that he did not make a Toronto team better. Manual has a lot of talent from the contending years playing for other teams. That the team is in such a decline that they are giving extended tryouts to jettisoned players like Young should be an indication of the dropoff of talent with the Phillies. Not to mention pitching injuries and old age. Cleaveland is dramatically improved, look at the talent they added or were lucky to find. Masterson stepped up. Is that the manager or the pitching coach.

If satire is done with non caustic wit or irony, that would be fine?

An uneducated guess would be a top ten prospect that is a pitcher, another top ten prospect, and a top 20 prospect. As the Boston Globe guy said, the Twins have so many holes it would be difficult for them. In a heartbeat the trade would happen if the prospects didn't include Buxton, Sano, Rosario, or Meyers. One of the prospect would have to have power hitting potential for the Marlins.

There is not a Twin player that is not available for another team to trade for. The limit becomes value to the Twins vs what is offered in trade. Very few players may be more valuable to the other team than they are to the Twins.

Todd Jones must have hated his time with the Twins. When he was doing a column for the Sporting News he took as many rips on them as he could. The Twins let him go as a FA after that half season. From fading recollection, I don't ever remember him being that good. In his own mind from the columns you would have thought he was Sparky Lyle.

Nathan has had a great career, but not a HOF career. Maybe if there was a few WS rings on his fingers, but that has not happened so far.

Because Leyland is allowed to have more than one friend, more than one person he respects

I think I have read more than once that the PCL is a hitter's league. That would make Solarte's numbers look better. It is not Profar blocking him from a roster spot. Solarte couldn't beat out Garcia for the Jack of all trades role on the Rangers

You couldn't find 10 reasons to like Twin's Daily so you came up with this?

I think winning comes from performance. Over the time of a baseball season talent will win. If you have enough talent you will win.

Since you would have to outbid Detroit the question should be do you sign Sanchez at 5 and 90.

I think Ryan would spend on position players but not pitching. Pitchers break to easily. It is not his money, but I do not think that Ryan was happy on how the money was spent on pitching last year.

The Twin's belief that Floriman will provide great or better defense is reflected in that they traded for Escobar

A fire? Pohlad in effige where the trees used to be on opening day?

Jairo Perez? Romero? From your free agent list there would be a clue to say there is no competition out there.

There is a reason Collabello has only played a few games at 3b and none for an organization that really needs one. Expected miracles abound on Christmas.

Open your eyed up some more. What front line pitcher has ever signed with a mid market last place team. Write all the articles you want bemoaning the spending. The reality you choose to ignore is that it takes two willing parties to make a contract. Sanchez used the Cubs to get the contract out of Detroit. The trade for Shields by KC is something the Twins could not pull of because they do not have the major league ready prospects to deal that KC did. Considering the Twin's needs this did not set up to be a good free agent class. No free agent help for the MI (Steven Drew as a defensive player was a negative, .250 as a hitter, 10 mill) What free agent pitcher other than Grienke was actually a number one starter? Sanchez and Dempster were used as number two. Marcum a three. The depth of the free agency this year was in bottom of the order starters. Precisely what you are complaining about them spending money on. see any of the thousand comments on Correia. Look back through the historical free agent signing. Top of the rotation pitchers do not sign with losing mid market teams they have no connection to. So is it that you expect a miracle to happen or what?

You are reaching on your comments on how the other teams improved. Detroit essentially moved Young for Hunter. Temporary upgrade. Chicago signs a gut after a career year, resigns their own players, lose their almost all star catcher. That is improvement? Scott Kazmir was not even the best pitcher on his indi team league last year. Wade Davis was repeatedly tried as a starter by Tampa. Ended up back in the bullpen. Bankers want a return on their investment. The big dogs of free agency are not going to a last place team. (Jackson is another 3-4 starter, look back and see how teams have used him) The mediocre are not really worth the money unless you are trying to fill out a roster.

With the money the Cubs have to spend, the results should be better. Every year a new bad team.

[TABLE=width: 100%] [TR=class: ysptblthbody1] [TD=class: yspdetailttl, align: left] Date[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl, align: left]Opponent[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl, align: left]Score[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]Dec[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]IP[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]H[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]R[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]ER[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]HR[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]BB[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]K[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]W[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]L[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]SV[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]BS[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]HLD[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]IP[/TD] [TD=class: yspdetailttl]ERA[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: ysprow1] [TD=class: yspscores, align: left] Sep 26[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores, align: left]NYY[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores, align: left]L 2-8[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]-[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]1.2[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]2[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]2[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores] [/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]6[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]5[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]79.0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]4.44[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores] [/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: ysprow2] [TD=class: yspscores, align: left] Sep 22[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores, align: left]@ DET[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores, align: left]L 0-8[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]L[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]2.1[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]7[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]7[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]7[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]2[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]3[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]1[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores] [/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]6[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]5[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]77.1[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]4.54[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores] [/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: ysprow1] [TD=class: yspscores, align: left] Sep 15[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores, align: left]CHW[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores, align: left]L 3-5[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]L[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]4.0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]3[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]4[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]4[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]1[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]5[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]6[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores] [/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]6[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]4[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]75.0[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores]3.84[/TD] [TD=class: yspscores] [/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: ysprow2] [TD=class: yspscores, align: left] Deduno's last three major league starts. Don't read about him tearing up winterball either.[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

Since the thread was on pitching. Fangraphs defines a good to great pitcher as one with a WAR above 3. There was only 35 of them last year in the majors, 46 the year before. A solid starter as one with a WAR of 2-3. There was only 36 of those last year, 21 the year before. Given those numbers are from fangraphs they should meet your standard. Random clicking on the names on the solid range of players reveals that either these pitchers are really inconsistent as their WAR score fluctuates widely, or there is an issue with the metric.

Jay, as bad as people want to quantify things, some things you can't without subjectivity. When there is subjectivity, there is error.